Jennifer Dorsey
Honors College Alumna of the Year
Like most students who choose to enroll in a university’s honors program, Jennifer Dorsey was a high-achieving self-motivator who craved knowledge and wanted to challenge herself academically. But there was a bit of an ulterior motive to Dorsey’s decision to pursue an honors degree at UNLV — and it stemmed from her experience in high school.
“I found that the advanced-placement and honors classes that I took at my large public high school afforded me a tight-knit community of familiar faces, making it easier to connect with my peers and teachers,” says Dorsey, a Las Vegas native. “UNLV’s Honors Program — it wasn’t a ‘college’ yet when I was there — did the same thing, ensuring that I didn’t drown in a sea of undergraduates.”
Suffice to say, Dorsey made the most of that big-fish, small-pond experience, ultimately graduating cum laude in communication studies. She then departed her hometown after being accepted to the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law in Malibu, California.
Upon completing her juris doctor, Dorsey returned to Las Vegas and began practicing law with the civil litigation firm of Kemp Jones & Coulthard. She not only handled a broad range of cases — everything from complex commercial litigation to class action lawsuits — but she gained a wealth of experience arguing before appeals courts at both the state and federal level.
Dorsey’s hard work was rewarded in 2004 when she became the first female to be named partner at Kemp Jones & Coulthard. She remained with the firm until 2013, when she was presented with an offer she couldn’t refuse — from none other than President Barack Obama, who appointed her as a U.S. District judge for the District of Nevada.
In her decade on the bench, Dorsey has adjudicated hundreds of cases. She also has the privilege of serving as the district judge on her court’s drug-diversion program known as RISE Court, which gives select defendants battling a substance-use disorder a unique opportunity to have their federal felony charges dismissed after completing a rigorous course of treatment and introspection.
“The impacts of this program and other alternative courts like it are far reaching,” Dorsey says. “When participants trade the cycle of addiction and incarceration for a journey of recovery and self-improvement, their families and communities benefit, too.”
When not donning her judicial robe, Dorsey is busy tutoring the next generation of jurists at both of her alma maters. She teaches legal writing as an adjunct professor at the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law (where she also serves on the school’s Board of Advisors) and at the at UNLV. In fact, Boyd’s Student Bar Association honored Dorsey with its 2021-22 Adjunct Professor of the Year award.
Dorsey also has earned accolades for her pro bono work. The Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada honored her pre-bench commitment to community service in 2011 when they awarded Dorsey the Vince Consul Memorial Pro Bono Award.
“I’ve been the beneficiary of so many mentors and opportunities throughout my life, and I’ve always found it important to repay that debt,” says Dorsey, who was named the Pepperdine Caruso School of Law’s Distinguished Alumnus in 2016. “Outside the tourist corridor, Las Vegas is still a small town with an engaged, core community. Providing service further strengthens and grows that community — and deepens my connection to it, making me feel that I am a part of something much bigger than myself.”
You grew up in Las Vegas and chose to stay home to attend college. Was that a no-brainer decision?
I was initially jealous of all my friends who left home for distant universities that offered new experiences in different climates. But I ultimately knew UNLV was the right choice for me when I graduated without any debt.
UNLV was extremely affordable in the early 1990s, and living in a 24/7 town like Las Vegas gave me a broad range of employment options that worked with a full load of college courses. So by the time I earned my degree, I had already gained years of real-world employment experience, which helped lay a solid foundation for my eventual career.
When did you know you wanted to pursue a career in law?
I knew I wanted to go into law when I was attending Chaparral High School in Las Vegas. I was on the school’s speech-and-debate team, and I went on to debate for UNLV during my undergraduate studies. I enjoyed the research and argument-formulation part of debate, and that’s the centerpiece of a litigation career.
Was becoming a judge always part of your career plan?
Definitely not — I’m not that self-confident! The prospect didn’t occur to me until I’d been a litigator for about a decade and had begun to perceive some great state court judges as friends and mentors. Only then did a path to the bench start to seem like an attainable future goal.
But to have the great and unexpected fortune of being selected as a federal judge, which carries a lifetime appointment, is like being struck by lightning.
Looking back on your time at UNLV, what were some of the most impactful moments that helped set you up for future success?
There were several experiences that were both important and memorable — too numerous to mention them all. But here are just a handful:
- Driving to out-of-state debate tournaments in a barely road-worthy Ford Econoline van from the UNLV vanpool (and eating like royalty on an $8-per-day food stipend).
- Late-night studying in the Honors Lounge that was tucked so deep in the back corner of the library that the building would sometimes close without anyone realizing that students were still in there.
- Spending a year as an Orientation Leader — one of the first faces welcoming new students to the UNLV campus.
- And a semester-long externship in Nevada Sen. Richard Bryan’s office on Capitol Hill during the 1992 presidential election.
